Saturday, December 24, 2011

Few things have made me happier than being a newlywed. The experience is truly impossible to describe. The joy of starting a new life with the one you love and sharing a whole new set of “firsts” with them has opened my eyes to a new facet of God’s blessings. For this reason, I was thrilled to plan out our first Christmas as a married couple!

One night at dinner, we had a good time discussing our respective family traditions. We gleaned through the list and decided to adopt some, nix others, and develop a brand new list of our own.

I asked Nick what he wanted for dinner that night and he responded: “BACON!” So, we opted for the “breakfast for dinner” tradition. We read the Christmas story from Luke (we do this in the King family!), ate dinner, and proceeded to share both good and bad memories from the previous year. We exchanged gifts and finished off the night with Home Alone 2! We were talking before bed and it just kind of hit me how thankful I am that I married someone who will always be my best friend.

As a child, a fond memory of mine was listening to my Mom sing along to The Carpenters Christmas album! I really wanted to listen to it this year and asked Nick if he would get me the CD. One morning, Nick left for work without my knowledge. I woke up a little disappointed that I didn’t get to kiss him goodbye. I walked into the living room and heard Mary Carpenter singing “Merry Christmas Darling” and found a note that said “look outside! Our first snow as husband and wife”. What a blessing it is to have a man who values “firsts” as much as I do.

Friday, December 2, 2011

I never thought I'd get sucked in. The commercialization of Christmas was always kind of nauseating to me. I used to find the one radio station that wasn't playing Christmas music and save it on preset 1 to avoid holiday cheer! I was a bit of an Ebenezer, if you will. I loved opening gifts and hearing the Christmas story, but when it came to the obsession of red and green, Santa, and overplayed music---I welcomed January 1.

My mom was always a big advocate of the Holiday season! Her Christmas tree would be breathtaking! Our job as kids was to "separate the lights"-we took it seriously until we realized it was busy work to keep us away from the handmade bows and cinnamon sticks which would elegantly grace the tree. All the homemade, macaroni ornaments were displayed on the tree in mine and Ashley's bedroom--they had no place on the opulent tree in the family room. We used to have this long-running joke where someone would hide and ugly ornament on the tree and see how long it too my mom to say "Who put that there?? where did that come from?!" haha! I still laugh about it.

This year is somehow different. I don't know if its the memory of my mom, being newly married, or that God has changed my heart---but I'm really excited!! My itunes is filled with popular Christmas songs, our tree was up before Thanksgiving, and I'm eager to come home and celebrate with family and friends. There's something so thrilling about making new traditions between Nick and myself.

Thanks to Mamma Simms (Allison Simmon's mom, and also my good friend), we had plenty of cheerful ornaments to put up! What a great wedding gift!

Pinterest gave me a great idea to have a gift for Nick every day of December up until Christmas! I've been working on collecting them and wrapping them with some sense of uniformity. I'm very thankful to have an excellent husband around this time of year--he's been my shoulder to cry on. On each gift I made a little tag with a reason why I love him. So far, he's really enjoyed opening each gift (even the boring ones--like undershirts and socks!).

I got a little crafty with puffy paint and scrapbook paper:

25 reasons why I love my hubs!!!:

To really get me in the Christmas spirit, Nick got me roses and a fraiser fir scented candle (I'm in love with it!):